KUALA LUMPUR, September 8 (IslamOnline.net) - Muslim leaders in South East Asia (SEA) are strongly denying the existence of alleged "terror group" called Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), saying its only part of a plot by the U.S. and its allies to undermine Islam and the Muslims in this region.

Hasyim Muzadi the Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest Muslim organization in Indonesia said that the United States was playing the JI card to put pressure on and control Indonesia and other Muslim countries, reported Antara Monday, September 8.

Hasyim, who leads the NU, an organization boasting 40 million members, said that the charge that the JI network was operating in Indonesia would only create the false impression that Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, was a safe haven for "terrorists".

His statement came a week after the failure by a court in Jakarta to find Muslim leader Abu Bakar Baysir guilty of leading the JI. Baysir was controversially sentenced for 4 years jail for some vague offenses.

Mansor Salleh, a writer from Thailand involved in social and economic work in Southern Thailand told IslamOnline.net that the JI was the creation of evil minds in their attempts to undermine Islam.

He added that he wrote a book in Thai language to prove with facts and other evidence that the JI did not exist in Thailand and that it also had no roots in Indonesia as claimed by intelligence agencies.

He also ruled out the presence of al-Qaeda elements in Thailand, saying that it was the idea of the authorities to press for support among Muslims to invent stories of the al-Qaeda or JI being present in south Thailand.

“The U.S. made up the JI to undermine the Muslims. The JI actually means a larger spectrum of the Muslim Ummah and when it is blamed for attacks and bombings, it’s the Ummah that is targeted,” Mansor told IOL.

The so-called JI is said to be a regional network is blamed for a series of bomb explosions in the country, including the deadly Bali bombing in October 2002 and the JW Marriott Hotel attack August 5.

None of those arrested so far in Malaysia, Singapore or Indonesia has clearly defined themselves as members of the JI. At least they have done so in court rooms and if some of them did say they were JI members, they did so in detention in Singapore under the harsh and inhuman Internal Security Act (ISA).

“People under the ISA are known to have agreed to so many things they were never guilty of in the past. Confessions under the ISA are irrelevant,” said another Muslim leader and member of the Mujahideen Council of Indonesia (MMI), to IOL Monday.

Another Malaysian national suspected of links with the al-Qaeda and the JI and arrested in Malaysia last year is also said to have no connections with these organizations.

Yazid Suffat, a businessman in detention under the ISA reportedly told his lawyers he did know anything about the JI or the al-Qaeda. He also told the FBI, according to one of his lawyers who spoke to IOL, that he also ignored there was a group called the Malaysian Mujahideen Movement (KMM).

On Friday, the United States froze the assets and accounts of 10 suspected terrorists, mostly Indonesian nationals and had urged the Indonesian authorities to take steps to seize these accounts in Indonesia itself.

It said these people were JI members who had links with the al-Qaeda. Despite this, the JI remains a shadowy group and the pressures by the Muslims in the region to get concrete evidence of its existence poses a real challenge to the U.S. and its allies, Mansor told IOL.

In Surabaya, Hasyim was even more direct in his criticism: "The verdict (in the Baysir trial) is proof that JI does not exist in Indonesia, even if it exists in other countries,"

The court in Jakarta denied that Baysir was indeed the leader of the JI.

According to Hasyim, JI was a label applied to Muslim movements, especially fundamentalist ones, in order to push them into a corner.

He lambasted the U.S. for not distinguishing between the moderate Muslim majority and the small number of Muslim fundamentalists.

Hasyim said Islamic fundamentalism was merely a reaction to the unjust world in which the U.S. itself played its part.

"Islam is not radical and does not subscribe to terrorism. Radicalism may happen, but it is only a reaction to injustice that the U.S. itself has perpetrated, for example, in the case of Palestine," said Hasyim.

Muslims have been frustrated by the U.S.'s double standards in the Palestinian issue. On one side, it promotes democracy, freedom of expression and human rights, but on another side, the U.S. has endorsed Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and human rights violations there said the Indonesian leader.

Hasyim suggested that Muslims fight against this injustice through peaceful means, such as by enhancing the quality of life and welfare of Muslims and improving the quality of Muslim education.